One Year

It's just a plastic disk,
sometimes a cheap metal
but a mere token, pretty much useless,
A bauble. But its more, much more!!
It symbolizes a whole year abstinent,
clean, released from the insanity
of compulsive eating, of gaining meaning
from what I put in my mouth.
It means recovery of body, spirit, mind
and freedom from bondage to food.
I understood when the Tuesday meeting
had no year chips; I would go the old group,
the meeting that's been there decades.
But they were out of one-year coins!
So I sit here, a year – the last token that counts
for it's the gateway to so much more.
I know I'll get it, later. I know I've got what counts,
I've got the year. One year. Hooray!
Really. Hooray. Thank God!